Effect of Adsorbed Water on the Spreading of Organic Liquids on Soda-Lime Glass

The spreading behavior and equilibrium contact angle, θ, of organic liquids on soda-lime glass surfaces were observed at relative humidities (rh) varying from 1 to 95%. Increasing rh increased θ for many nonhydrophilic liquids on glass; no comparable effects occurred with nonadsorptive solid surfaces. The decrease in wettability of the glass with increasing rh resulted from the physical adsorption of a surface layer of water molecules sufficient to convert the normally high-energy glass surface into one that behaves as a low-energy surface, i.e. a surface with a low critical surface tension for spreading, γ_c, toward nonhydrophilic liquids. As the thickness of the adsorbed water layer increased, glass behaved like a surface with progressively decreasing γ_c, approaching that of bulk water. These results are discussed in relation to the effect of moisture on the spreading or adhesion of resins to glass and other hydrophilic solids.     

Energy Consumption in Water Blanching

The energy consumption of a tubular water blancher and a water blancher with screw conveyor were measured as a basis for suggesting energy conserving modifications. The former required 0.54 MJ/kg and the latter 0.91 MJ/kg, indicating the importance of complete steam condensation. A pilot scale experiment with a water blancher heated with heat exchange and by steam injection confirmed the energy savings potential of heating with an exchanger to minimize escape of steam rather than by steam injection.     

Mental representations of spatial language

Previous studies have provided evidence of multi-level mental representations of language-conveyed spatial (scenic) information. However, the available evidence is largely inconclusive with regard to the structure of these mental representations. A laboratory experiment assesses computer-assisted problem-solving performance abilities when language-conveyed representations of spatial information are matched with the language perspective of the task and with individual cognitive skills. Our findings largely validate this paradigm of “cognitive fit” that has been applied in non-language computer display domains, and the results suggest language-fostered “perspective-bias” in the formation and use of mental representations of spatial (scenic) information.